Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Folklore: Redwall

For Teachers 8th
Brian Jacques’ novel Redwall provides the focus for a series of lessons involving the analysis of folklore. Adopting the persona of a character, groups write letters in the voice of their character, assemble a collage using Microsoft...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Macbeth - Analyzing Characterization in Drama

For Teachers 11th - 12th
The writing activity in this lesson could be used to assess student understanding of previously taught concepts of how language reveals character.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Call of The Wild

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What a Character!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Because of Winn-Dixie Scrapbook

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Here is a fun resource that your kids will love. While reading the book Because of Winn-Dixie, they analyze the story's main characters by creating an online scrapbook. The purpose is to have them identify character traits and use...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction To Literary Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing Fiction: Using Older Characters

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Out with the old and in with the new? Not so in this lesson plan, which explores the idea of writing older characters in fiction. Students learn the value of varying their characters, exploring different perspectives, and avoiding...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To Kill A Mockingbird: Characterization

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze several of the characters from "To Kill a Mockingbird". They view segments of the film, create character webs based on the most revealing film scenes, write journal entries and participate in class discussion.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Three Shots": Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Analyze characterization in literature. Readers use "Three Shots," from The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway and complete classroom activities that require them to apply literary analysis techniques. They write their own short...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating Characters

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the methods of effective characterization. In this writing skills lesson, students discuss how emotions, dialogue, actions, and physical descriptions build believable characters. Students then use the methods of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analysis Through Character Action/Beliefs

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore characterization. In this characterization lesson, students give analytical responses to questions and determine a character's beliefs. Students use the school mission statement to develop two beliefs that the statement...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Twain: Tom Sawyer—Mythic Adventurer

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers take a closer look at archetypes. For this characterization lesson, students examine the setting and the characters of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as they read and analyze the novel. High schoolers consider how Twain...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Cyrano de Bergerac Nose His Terms

For Teachers 7th
Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Art of Charity in Characterization

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students garner knowledge of characterization of the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and see that even the less savory characters must be flushed out in description of personality and physical traits.
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Pain and suffering do not have to be inevitable in a study of Crime and Punishment. A carefully scaffolded lesson plan introduces readers to the divided natures of the characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's complex novel. Groups use...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing the Use of Irony in a Short Story

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders examine how literature connects to real-life and see how irony aids in the development of theme. They read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, and discuss elements of foreshadowing and situational irony. Then learners will write...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Greek Origins and Character Development

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders examine words of Greek origin and discuss character development in fiction. They read a list of Greek word parts and create words on a worksheet. Students then read and discuss an informational handout about character...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" in Graphical Representation

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations lesson, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Students then create their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Into the Wild: Creating Characters

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students analyze well-known fairy tale characters to learn about characterization. After choosing two fairy tale characters and determining what the characters most want and most fear, students switch characters and stories. They...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Elements/Characterization

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students investigate language arts by analyzing a book with their classmates. In this children's literature lesson, students read the story Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant and discuss the setting and characters. Students create a T-Chart in...
Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for The Call of the Wild by Jack London

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Three activities are designed for readers of Jack London's The Call of the Wild. First, class members research and create posters that reflect the setting of the novel. Next, groups create posters with images that represent each chapter...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fear and Loathing in Othello

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers research the ideas that people had of African people during Shakespearean times and examine Othello's descriptions of himself as written by Shakespeare.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Narrating the Compson Family Decline and the Changing South

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze the novel, "The Sound and the Fury," written by iam Faulkner, tracing the changing South. Through the narrative structure, the point of view, and the relationship between change and characterization, students view...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...